Thursday, February 22, 2018

Indian
team has been on a surge and fans have been happy following the team’s winning
performance in South Africa, but at Centurion it was a different tale.First Junior Dala priced out Rohit &
Kohli cheaply ~ then came a grand 98 run partnership between Manish Pandey and
MS Dhoni that set up a target of 189.

Rohit
Sharma, who hasn't been in the best of form since his arrival in South Africa,
had another forgettable show with the bat as he was dismissed for a first-ball
duckby Junior Dala.Rohit now has maximum ducks by an Indian
batsman in T20 internationals. Prior to the match, he was jointly in the first
place along with Ashish Nehra and Yusuf Pathan, who all have scored three
golden ducks each in their T20I careers. ~ and in his 3rd over
Chahal was torn apart by JP Duminy and
Heinrich Klaasen, who as hit for 23.Yuzvendra
Chahal conceded 64 runs in his four overs.

The worst
bowling performance in T2oI is by BJ
McCarthy playing for Ireland against Afghanistan giving 4-0-69-0.The next 64 has the names of Kyle Abbot,
James Anderson, Sanath Jayasuriya, A Tye, BM Wheeler and YuzChahal ~ while all of them gave 64 in 4
overs, Wheeler had figures of 3.1-0-64-0.

Whilst
most of you would have read the match report on this day – 22nd Feb – not sure whether you remember to
connect this day (South Africa to a small village in Tamil Nadu and a frail
woman who died 103 years ago !)If not
read on – connecting the collection of these sarees to that woman – it is a
photo taken at Coo-optex,the Tamilnadu
Handloom weavers’ cooperative society.

This
little village has connection with Gandhiji … hundreds of people from
here had gone gone to South Africa in the early 20th Century both as
indentured and free labour. Several of them had been deported back after that
first Satyagraha movement Gandhiji had launched while in South
Africa ~ and one among them was a woman (rather a young girl) who lived
for only 16 years. Tharangambadi also known as Tranqubar is in
Nagapattinam from where indentured labour from India, mostly Tamil and
Telugu peasantry, left fromMadras aboard the S.S.Truro.

22nd February
marks the death anniversary of Thillayadi Valliammai, the revolutionary,
famed to have inspired Mahatma Gandhi in his fight against colonial rule.
Born to Mangalam and Muthusamy Mudaliar, Valliammai was initiated into
political struggle by Gandhi, when the colonial State of South Africa declared
null and void all marriages forged outside of the South African law or Church
law. Thousands of marriages were annulled. Valliammai marched with her mother
from Transvaal to Natal protesting against the unjust laws.
Valliammai also participated with her mother in protests against exorbitant
taxes levied against workers. They were arrested and sentenced to three months
of hard labour.

It
is recorded that when Gandhi visited a fragile and ill Valliammai shortly after
her release, the young girl vowed to be arrested any number of times to carry
on the fight for people’s rights. Gandhi cited her as someone who inspired him
to stay the course in the fight for equality in South Africa. But the
girl’s physical health did not match her mental strength. Shortly after her
release, Valliammai, all of 16 years, died on February 22, 1914.

Popularly
called Thillaiyadi Valliammai, she had never been to her native village or for
that matter to India. She grew in an environment that was rather hostile
to Indians.

A
law had been passed that any marriage that is not according to the Church or
according to the marriage law of South Africa would be held null and void,
which disproportionately affected the Indian community in that country.
Young Valliammai joined her mother in the march by women from Transvaal
to Natal – which was not legally permitted without passes. Valliamma,
and her mother Mangalam, joined the second batch of Transvaal women who went
to Natal in October 1913 to explain the inequity of the three pound
tax to the workers and persuade them to strike. They visited different centres
and addressed meetings. They were sentenced in December to three months with
hard labour, and sent to the Maritzburg prison. Valliamma fell ill soon after
her conviction, but refused an offer of early release by the prison
authorities. She died shortly after release, on 22 February 1914.

Gandhi
wrote in Satyagraha in South Africa about his meeting with Vallammai
when she was emaciated and terribly ill. She reportedly expressed her
strength to fight, go to jail again, and even die fighting for the cause.It is reported that Gandhi spoke about her in
his meetings in Marina beach and also spoke at Wenlock park near Marina ground,
overlooking the Triplicane MRTS station.

Now a
Memorial hall including Public liabrary stands at the Thillaiyadi village. A commemorative
stamp on her was released in Dec 2008. The main showroom of Cooptex at Pantheon
Road, Egmore, Chennai – is named after ‘Thillaiyadi Valliammai’………

Wednesday, February 21, 2018

In the
modern World, there are no rules for spending ~ one need not have anything to
spend – not even Credit cards (plastic money) ! – people are wary of carrying
coins – yet the Rs.10 coin has created so much of buzz that RBI is sending messages
! urging people that it continues to be a legal tender !!

There
are legal tenders and there are commemorative notes in coins – for example, in
2015, Reserve Bank of Indiaissued ₹ 10 coins to commemorate the International Day of Yoga - the
obverse of the coin bears the Lion Capitol of Ashoka Pillar in the center with
the legend "सत्यमेव जयते" inscribed below, flanked on the left
periphery with the word "भारत" in Devnagri script and on the right
periphery flanked with the word "INDIA" in English. It also bears the
Rupee symbol "₹" and denominational value "10" in the
international numerals below the Lion Capitol. The reverse of the coin bears
the logo of "International Day of Yoga", with inscription "सामंजस्य
एवं शान्ति के लिए योग" in Devnagri Script and "YOGA FOR HARMONY AND
PEACE" around the logo and design.

The Government of India has the sole right to mint
coins. The responsibility for coinage vests with the Government of India in
terms of the Coinage Act, 1906 as amended from time to time. The designing and
minting of coins in various denominations is also the responsibility of the
Government of India. Coins are minted at the four India Government Mints at
Mumbai, Alipore(Kolkata), Saifabad(Hyderabad), Cherlapally (Hyderabad) and
NOIDA (UP). The coins are issued for circulation only through the Reserve Bank
in terms of the RBI Act.Coins in India
are presently being issued in denominations of 50 paise, one rupee, two rupees
and five rupees. Coins of 50 paise are
called 'small coins' and coins of Rupee one and above are called 'Rupee Coins'.
Coins can be issued up to the denomination of Rs.1000 as per the Coinage Act,
1906.

Coinage of India,
issued by imperial dynasties and middle kingdoms - Cowry shells was first used
in India as commodity money.Metal
currency was minted in India during the
famed Mauryan Empire.Coins of the Indian
rupee were first minted in 1950. New coins have been produced annually
since then and they make up a valuable aspect of the Indian currency system. After Indian independence, British Indian
coins were in use as a frozen currency until India became a republic in 1950.

The first rupee coins of the Republic of India were minted in 1950. These
included 1/2 rupee, 1/4 rupee, 2 anna, 1 anna, 1/2 anna & 1 pice coins, and
are referred to as the anna series or pre-decimal coinage. Under the anna
series, one rupee was divided into 16 annas or 64 pice, with each anna equal to
4 pice. In 1957, India shifted to the decimal system, though for a short period
of time, both decimal and non-decimal coins were in circulation. To distinguish
between the two pice coins in circulation, the coins minted between 1957 and
1964 were printed with the legend “Naya Paisa” (“New Paisa”). The word "naya" was dropped in 1964
and a new denomination, the 3 paisa, was introduced into circulation. Stainless steel coinage of 10, 25 and 50 paisa
was introduced in 1988. In 2005, the 10
rupee coin was minted for the first time. On 30 June 2011, all coins in denominations of
25 paisa and below were officially demonetised.

Now it is the 10 rupee
coin that is at the centre of controversy making the need for Indian Central
Bank to send outhundreds of millions of text messages to
protect the value of the Indian currency. It's powerful evidence of just how
seriously governments take their task of ensuring the illusion that the cash in
our pockets actually has value.The issue
is rathersimple: at some pockets
especially in rural India, people don't
seem to believe that the 10 rupee coins are real and, as a result, they are
unwilling to accept them.

Factually,14 different kinds of 10 rupee coins have
been issued by the bank between 2009 and 2017 ~ social media adding to the
confusion circulating stories that a man
on his way to a job interview was forced to get off the bus because the conductor
wouldn't accept 10 rupee coins, the only currency he had ! (there can be
another movie on what happened to him by not attending the interview or a girl
intervening to buy a ticket and a different story thereafter !)

Me too received a
textfrom the central bank urging me to accept the
10 rupee coins "without fear". The no. when called had a recorded message, explaining that the Indian
government has minted a number of different 10 rupee coins over the years, each
with a different pattern, and that all are valid.Members of the public should, it exhorted,
"continue to accept coins of the 10 rupee denomination as legal tender in
all their transactions without any hesitation".

Currencies are
legal tender- you take it for some
service – and are able to buy anything of its value with everybody accepting it
– other than the trouble of carrying coins in bulk, there should be no other
impediment.The worth of money isn't
based on the inherent value of the paper or metal - it's forged from a
collective act of trust.The Indian
central bank's PR offensive in defence of the 10 rupee coin is an attempt to
ensure that the peoples' faith in the rest of the country's cash isn't
undermined.

The recent circular
issued by Reserve Bank of India reads :It
has come to the notice of RBI that in certain places there is reluctance on
part of traders and members of public to accept ₹ 10 coins due to suspicion
about their genuineness. It is clarified that the Reserve Bank puts into
circulation, the coins minted by mints, which are under the Government of
India. These coins have distinctive features to reflect various themes of
economic, social and cultural values and are introduced from time to time. As
coins have longer life, coins of different designs and shapes circulate in the
market at the same time. So far the Reserve Bank has issued ₹ 10 coins in 14
designs and the public has been informed of their distinctive features through
Press Releases (list appended). All these coins are legal tender and can be
accepted for transactions. The Reserve Bank has also advised banks to accept
coins for transactions and exchange at all their branches.

Tuesday, February 20, 2018

Everyone
wants to present themselves in the best light - especially when it comes to
finding a partner. Some rely on supplying honest information about their
attributes while others exaggerate for good effect.

Could still
remember that debut ball with which Bhuvi started his ODI career at Chepauk on
Dec 30, 2012 against Pakistan ~
Bhuvneshwar Kumar – a big inswinger from outside off, Mohammed Hafeez thought
he was just letting it go harmlessly, as it came back took the Offstump .. .. after his recent success in T20 in SA, Bhuvneshwar
Kumar is now the first Indian to have a five-for in each format. The economy
rate of a run a ball too matters more - this in turn brings wickets, sometimes
for other bowlers but, like on Sunday evening, for Bhuvneshwar himself.

Steven Smith,
Nathan Lyon, Heather Knight, Fakhar Zaman and Mohammad Amir are among the
winners of the ESPNcricinfo Awards for the best performances in cricket in
2017.Knight, the England Women captain,
who led her side to the World Cup title, won the Captain of the Year award over
Smith, Virat Kohli and Sarfraz Ahmed. It was the first time women were
nominated in the category.The T20I
batting award went to Evin Lewis, who made 125 not out, the highest score in a
T20I chase, in Kingston against India. Yuzvendra Chahal was voted the T20I
bowling winner for his 6 for 25 against England in Bengaluru.Kuldeep Yadav was adjudged Debutant of the
year. Yadav, whose first international wicket was David Warner, in the
Dharamsala Test, ended the year with 43 international wickets at 22.18, well
ahead of his nearest spin rival on the shortlist, Pakistan legspinner Shadab
Khan, who took 34 wickets at 25.35.

Former South Africa
captain Graeme Smith believes Aiden Markram's appointment as interim captain
for the ODIs against India was "not the right decision," and hopes
that his confidence hasn't taken a dent after the home team was comprehensively
beaten 5-1.Smith, who was himself
handed the captaincy as a 22-year old after South Africa's early exit from the
2003 World Cup, said 23-year old Markram, who had only played two ODIs before
he was thrust into the role, should have been allowed to "grow, develop
and become a strong player." Markram made 8, 32, 22, 32 and 24 in five
innings as captain, and finished the series with 127 runs at an average of just
over 21.

Cricket
is not all about players, statistics, winning and more ~ there could be some
more too.Tree crickets are
insects of order Orthoptera. These crickets are in the subfamily Oecanthinae of
the family Gryllidae .. .. How do you find a mate when you are just two
centimetres in size and there aren’t very many who match your profile?

An
old trick is to draw attention to yourself by creating a lot of noise. But the
tiny tree crickets have taken this a step further: they amplify their mating
calls using loudspeakers that they themselves build using leaves.The Hindu reports that scientists have discovered that the
loudspeakers they make are almost maximally optimised for the purpose at hand:
transform any given leaf into the best ‘amplifier’ it could be.

When
these ingenious insects rub their wings together to generate sound, they also
engineer a biological contraption known as a ‘baffle,’ which increases its
volume. They do this by cutting a neat hole near the centre of a leaf,
adjusting themselves within the hole, and flapping their wings against the leaf
surface, thereby using it as a megaphone. A group of scientists from the United
Kingdom and India studied how these insects (male Oecanthus henryi) selected
the leaves and cut the holes. The findings were published recently in the
journal eLife.

The
team observed that the insects always followed three design rules for making
the baffle: use the largest available leaf; make a hole the size of the wings
and place the wings at the centre; and make the hole as close to the centre of
the leaf as possible. They invariably select the best leaf and modify it
appropriately, all in a single attempt. “Brain size is often conflated with
intelligence. We ought to look at insects a bit harder and even what we think
is stereotyped may not be so. Making baffles is almost certainly an inherited
behaviour....and not really studied that much. When given a choice of two
leaves, they always pick the bigger. They exercise what we call material
selectivity. When it’s hard to find large leaves, they don’t waste time on the
small leaves that make poor baffles,” writes Natasha Mhatre, who was part of
the team at the University of Bristol, that conducted the study and the first
author of the paper.

In an
email to The Hindu, Rittik Deb of the Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian
Institute of Science, and co-author of the paper, says: “The discovery that
tree crickets can optimise acoustic baffles means we are just about beginning
to tap into under-appreciated intelligence of insects.”

Monday, February 19, 2018

“Super rats” are
multiplying at a rapid rate across Johannesburg, according to a report by the
Sunday Times. The report stated that the rats are becoming bigger and smarter,
and a record 661g “Ratzilla” was recently caught by a rat expert in the city.Johannesburg’s environmental health department
said it is concerned by how quickly the rats are breeding, while the report
stated an abundance of food for the rodents means their numbers are thriving. “There
is evidence that rat-bite incidents in the city are increasing and that is an
indication that there are more rodents, which is a huge concern,” the city’s
environmental health department told the Sunday Times.“Reports from city officials show that the
rodents were biting residents at a rate of at least a dozen incidents a day,”
stated the report. This puts people at risk of contracting rat-bite fever and
other diseases.

A Johannesburg man
who pretended to be an employee of Johannesburg Water‚ has been arrested for
allegedly scamming and soliciting bribes from residents for water services. He
was arrested by the Hawks after allegedly attempting to solicit a R2‚000 bribe
from a resident in Westdene. “The suspect‚ has been operating for quite some time and
extorting monies from residents whose water bills were in arrears in places
like Brixton‚ Westdene‚ Aucklandpark‚ Sophiatown‚ Bosmont‚ Riverlea‚ Westbury
and Newlands. He reconnected water supply to houses that were cut off after
being paid by the residents‚” said a statement from the mayor’s office.The suspect allegedly approached a
chairperson of a sectional title building which houses students after services
to the building were cut off due to late or non-payment‚ indicating to the
resident that the water supply would be reconnected if he was given R4‚500‚
which the resident paid.

On to the field for
first T20 match between India and South Africa, it has been good – unbelievably
good run extending from that Test win – to 5-1 in ODIs to win in T20. Christiaan
Jonker, Junior Dala and Heinrich Klaasen are the three new faces in South
Africa's squad for the three-match T20I series; JP Duminy is the Captain.Jonker was not in the squad – other two made
their debut – Suresh Raina made a comeback after long years – incidentally India
played their first ever T20 at Johannesburg in Dec 1 2006 and do you know the
man of the match, who is in the squad now ???

Back home, the Honorable
Supreme Court appointed Committee of Administrators (COA) announced cash
rewards for the victorious India U19 team that won the ICC U19 World Cup in New
Zealand after beating Australia in the final.Mr Rahul Dravid, Head Coach India U19 – INR 50 lakhs ; Members of India
U19 team – INR 30 lakhs each and Members of the Support Staff, India U19 – INR
20 lakhs each

At Johannesburg,
the score card reads :India 203 for 5
(Dhawan 72, Dala 2-47) beat South Africa 175 for 9 (Hendricks 70, Behardien 39,
Bhuvneshwar 5-24) by 28 runs.On a flat
pitch, in the thin air of the Highveld, India's batsmen piled up 203 for 5, and
that total proved more than adequate against a South African line-up missing a
number of its biggest names. A 28-run win, with starring roles for Shikhar
Dhawan and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, gave India a 1-0 lead in the three-match T20I
series, but they may not have left the Wanderers entirely thrilled about their
performance, particularly with the bat.

India's batting in
T20s often seems more risk-averse than the format demands, built on a
platform-setting template borrowed from ODIs. This innings was different. Short
and wide bowling from Dane Paterson to Rohit Sharma allowed them to plunder 18
from the first over, but they kept going after the bowling even when it wasn't
so charitable. Suresh Raina took it to an extreme, exposing all his stumps and
slogging at everything to score a chancy 15 off 7 at No. 3. Dhawan also kept
going hard, his top-edged hoicks over the keeper making the same impact on the
scorecard as his pristinely-timed flicks over square leg and slaps either side
of point.When SA batted and when there
were some hopes of their reaching the target, the prime difference was the
class of Bhuvaneswar kumar who had a flattering figure of 4-0-24-5 and
naturally winning the Man of the Match.

Sunday, February 18, 2018

In this
mystic land of Thiruvallikkeni (Triplicane) – there is so much.The International Tin
Council (ITC) was an organisation which acted on behalf of major tin producers
and consumers to control the International tin market. It is no longer
active.An International Tin Study
Group, which was established in 1947 to survey world supply of and demand for
tin, led to the treaty, the International Tin Agreement, signed in 1954, and
the formation of the ITC in 1956.

Of the many things
that I do not know :Lead & Tin
metal are different. (ஈயம் வேறு காரீயம் வேறு).. ..
.... .. Though the above
article showsEeyam as Lead, there is
world of difference.Lead is a chemical
element with symbol Pb (from the Latin plumbum) and atomic number 82. It is a
heavy metal that is denser than most common materials.Before you read
anything further,contrary to popular
belief, pencil leads in wooden pencils have never been made from lead. When the
pencil originated as a wrapped graphite writing tool, the particular type of
graphite used was named plumbago (literally, act for lead or lead mockup).

Tin, on the other
hand, is a natural element in the
earth's crust. It is a soft,an almost
silver-white, ductile, malleable, lustrous solid silvery metal that does not
dissolve in water. It is present in brass, bronze, pewter, and some soldering
materials. Tin metal is used to line cans for food,
beverages, and aerosols. Tin can combine with other chemicals to form
compounds. Combinations with chemicals like chlorine, sulfur, or oxygen are
called inorganic tin compounds (i. e. , stannous chloride, stannous sulfide,
stannic oxide). These are used in toothpaste, perfumes, soaps, food additives
and dyes. Tin is a chemical element
with symbol Sn (from Latin: stannum) and atomic number 50. It is a
post-transition metal in group 14 of the periodic table. It is obtained chiefly
from the mineral cassiterite, which contains tin dioxide, SnO2.

Metallic tin is not
easily oxidized in air. The first alloy used on a large scale was bronze, made
of tin and copper, from very old days, later came the usage of pure metallic tin.Pewter, which is an alloy of 85–90% tin with
the remainder commonly consisting of copper, antimony, and lead, was used for
flatware from the Bronze Age until the 20th century. In modern times, tin is
used in many alloys, most notably tin/lead soft solders, which are typically
60% or more tin and in the manufacture of transparent, electrically conducting
films of indium tin oxide in optoelectronic applications. Another large
application for tin is corrosion-resistant tin plating of steel.Web info reveals that the patent for canning
in sheet tin was secured in 1810 in England, legendary French chef Auguste
Escoffier experimented with a solution for provisioning the French army while
in the field by adapting the tin lining techniques used for his cookware to
more robust steel containers (then only lately introduced for canning) which
protected the cans from corrosion and soldiers from lead solder and botulism
poisoning.

Tin linings
sufficiently robust for cooking are wiped onto copper by hand, producing a
.25–45-mm-thick lining.For a period
following the Second World War, pure nickel was electroplated as a lining to
copper cookware.Till a few decades ago,
most households would have ‘eeya chembu (vessel made of tin metal’ – especially
for making ‘rasam’ and for curdling.South Indian meals is not complete without ‘Rasam’ – the liquid made of
tamarind, coriander seed, pepper, cumin seeds, red chilie, salt, thoor dal
water, asafetida, and smashed tomato.There are fine variants like – ‘tomato rasam’, ‘inji (ginger)rasam’‘pine-apple rasam’ – ‘lime rasam’, ‘milagu rasam’, ‘paruppu rasam’,
‘veppampoo rasam (neem flower), ‘poondu rasam’ – [besides all these there is
always the famous rasam of home, which you always appreciate irrespective of
its flavor !]

Have you tasted
‘rasam in eeya utensil’ – or have you seen one recently .. here are some photos
of ‘tin metal in billet’ and the utensils made of this tin metal.Triplicane, [more specifically the area
around the erstwhile Sri Parthasarathi Swami sabha in Venkat Rangam
Street]housed some industries – engaged
in eversilver ware and tin-ware too.Slowly most of them have winded down.Nearer my house, still stands a small shop engaged in making
tin-utensils used for cooking, supplying to all shops in Chennai – most of which
are made to order and according to its owner, they are still fast moving.The raw-material is mostly imported from
Malaysia and is reportedly around Rs.2600/- per kg – the making is hard and
requires strenuous labour.

If
you get excited reading this and plan to venture into making rasam on a eeya-paathiram,
beware, it is not easy – it requires care while using the vessel, - the
utensil could melt very easily and if left on hot oven, in a few minutes one
may end up seeing a blob of silvery-white metal.In making rasam, the vessel should not be too
low in quantity and gas stove should not be on high – keep it just simmering,
and you are sure to experience a great taste in the rasam at home. Happy
cooking !!~sadly, like many other things that have
vanished, these may not be available for the next generation – the
Karagattakkaran comedy of Sentil – Goundamani on ‘ Pazhaya eeya pathirathukku
perichampazham’ may not be understood as the relevance may not be understood.

Saturday, February 17, 2018

Long
long ago ! ~ the game of Cricket was a match between bowlers and batsmen and
bowlers did have an upperhand ?? I have not heard much of ~ D'Arcy John Matthew Short ~ the left handed opener
for Hobart Hurricanes who can bowl slow spin too. He was the man of the match at Auckland.

The iconic ground's
straight boundaries are among the shortest in world cricket, making it sorely
tempting for batsmen to attempt belting a six over the bowler's head. In 1902, Harry Ryan, a young, passionate
cricketer, stood on Kingsland Road which strewn with stones, rocky outcrops and
cowpats with a low-lying swamp at the bottom.
He saw a cricket ground. This was to become Eden Park. In 1910 the Park became the home of Auckland
Cricket. Eden Park is New Zealand's
largest stadium, located in central Auckland.

Remember those good
olden days when India won a Test in New Zealand in Auckland ~ Test no. 769 in Jan 1976. Remember reading about the Test in ‘The
Hindu’ and partially hearing commentary in the mornings of January 1976 –Kiwis
were led by Glenn Turner, a legend those times.
Playing first they were all out for 266 with Chandrasekhar taking 6/94.
Sunil Gavaskar led India in the absence of an injured Bishan Bedi. Gavaskar made a patient 116 and was over
taken by Surinder Amarnath who made a fine 124 with 16 fours and 1 six. It was
a time when it was 8 balls per over. Alongside
Surinder – Kirmani and Dilip Vengsarkar were to make their debuts and went on
to play much longer than Surinder did.

First, the happy
news ~ India won the ODI series rather easily (5 – 1) – I had never imagined
such a result. The summary reads India
206 for 2 (Kohli 129*, Rahane 34*) beat South Africa 204 (Zondo 54, Thakur
4-52) by eight wickets. Confidence and
form are two of the most influential factors in batting. They often dictate
timing and placement - requisites for scoring runs. South Africa have lacked
both after their sub-par performances this series. In good
batting conditions in Centurion, South Africa's batsmen grappled with their own
lack of confidence and India's disciplined bowling, resulting in another
mediocre total. Shardul Thakur, playing his first match of the series, led
another clinical display from India with figures of 4 for 52 as South Africa
were bowled out for 204. On the other
end of that form spectrum lies Virat Kohli. With 429 runs in five games prior
to the final ODI, Kohli was oozing confidence. Against a jaded bowling attack,
and with all that belief, his 35th ODI hundred was almost a formality. It helped
India coast to an eight-wicket win, and take the six-match series 5-1. Kohli finished
with 558 runs in six matches, the most by a batsman in a bilateral series.

Away in Eden Park,
in Newzealand it was a massacre – in 38.5 overs, New Zealand and Australia pillaged a
phenomenal 488 runs, with Australia setting a new record by pulling off the
highest successful T20 chase. 488 The
run aggregate in this match - the second-highest ever in T20Is. The overall
record, which this match missed by one run, was set in the India-West Indies
clash in Lauderhill in 2016. 32 Number of sixes in the match - the
joint-highest in a T20I, equaling the 32 struck by West Indies and India in
Lauderhill in 2016. New Zealand's 18 sixes were also their highest in an innings.

The scorecard would
never reveal the deathknell of the bowlers .. Australia 245 for 5 (Short 76,
Warner 59) beat New Zealand 243 for 6 (Guptill 105, Munro 76) by five wickets. Martin
Guptill's 49-ball hundred - and a host of other records were rendered useless
by D'Arcy Short and David Warner hammering
aggressive fifties to set the tone of the reply and Australia's middle order
kept the pedal to the metal at a stage where New Zealand had stuttered to seal
victory with more than an over to spare. The stands were peppered for 32 sixes
- the sufferers were the bowlers. AJ Tye
conceded 64 from his four overs, soothed a modicum by two wickets, but he could
probably spare some sympathy for New Zealand's Wheeler, who was left with 0 for
64 from just 3.1. Perversely, the most economical bowler on either side -
Ashton Agar - did not deliver his full quota.

I cannot comprehend
how Short was given the man of the match.
Martin Guptill made 105 off just 54 balls with 9 sixers; while Short
made 76 off 44 with 3 sixers – Aussie won and Short was the man !! ~ it is stated that a strong 33692 spectators
watched the match at venue. There were
some catches – made as also put down - Mitchell
Grimstone, a 20-year-old student, earned himself NZD50,000 courtesy of a local
drinks sponsor when he leaned over the railing at deep midwicket to pluck Ross
Taylor's penultimate-ball six out of the air with his left hand. His reaction
was priceless (or, well, worth 50K) as he was mobbed by those next to him in
the stands. "I'm not left-handed," he said. "But somehow I put
it there and it stuck, and then everyone was jumping over me."

At South Africa
Indian women too are making merry ~ after the great show in ODIs – they beat SA
again in T20. India women 144 for 1 (Raj
76*, Mandhana 57, Daniels 1-21) beat South Africa women 142 for 7 (Luus 33, de
Klerk 26, Poonam 2-18, Anuja 2-37) by nine wickets. A century opening stand, underpinned by
fifties from Mithali Raj and Smriti Mandhana, handed South Africa a nine-wicket
drubbing in East London and helped India go 2-0 up in the five-match T20I
series with five balls to spare. Steering the 143 chase, Raj became the first
woman to score four consecutive T20I half-centuries.

Smaller grounds,
like in Auckland, Napier and Christchurch at present, mean bigger totals as
teams struggle to defend the boundaries. In grounds like Eden Park, bowlers would only
run in trepidation as even a mishit could soar beyond the boundary ! ~ the
boundary at one part of the oval measured only 51 metres.

Wednesday, February 14, 2018

Ants
are social insects of the family Formicidae; along with the related wasps and bees, belong
to the order Hymenoptera. More than 12,500 out of an estimated total of 22,000
species have been classified. Ants form colonies that range in size from a few
dozen predatory individuals living in small natural cavities to highly
organised colonies which may occupy large territories and consist of millions
of individuals.Fire ants are a variety
of stinging ants with over 285 species worldwide. They have several common
names, including ginger ants, tropical fire ants and red ants.

Set in the modern
times, an elderly veteran visits the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial
with his family. Upon seeing one particular grave, he falls to his knees
overcome with emotion. The scene then shifts to the morning of June 6, 1944, as
American soldiers land on Omaha Beach as part of the Normandy Invasion. They
suffer heavy losses in assaulting German positions defended by artillery and
machine guns. Captain John H. Miller of the 2nd Ranger Battalion assembles a
group to penetrate the German defenses, leading to a breakout from the beach.
Elsewhere on the beach, a dead soldier is face down in the bloody surf; his
pack is stenciled Ryan, S.

In Washington,
D.C., at the U.S. War Department, General George Marshall learns that three of
the four brothers of the Ryan family were killed in action and that the fourth
son, James, has been parachuted somewhere in Normandy. After reading Abraham
Lincoln's Bixby letter aloud for his staff, he orders that James Ryan be found
and returned home immediately. Three days after D-Day, Miller receives orders
to find Ryan and bring him back from the front. He assembles six men from his
company— they move out to Neuville,
where they meet a squad from the 101st Airborne Division, in pursuit, they eventually encounter a friend of James
Ryan, who tells them that he is defending an important bridge in the town of
Ramelle.

Saving
Private Ryan is a 1998 American epic war drama film directed by Steven
Spielberg. M Set during the Invasion of Normandy in World War II, the film is
notable for its graphic portrayal of war, and for the intensity of its opening
27 minutes, which includes a depiction of the Omaha Beach assault during the
Normandy landings.The film received
widespread critical acclaim, winning several awards for film, cast, and crew,
as well as earning significant returns at the box office.

It's a
scene familiar from countless war films — the brave soldiers risking their
lives to carry an injured comrade to safety, the noble casualty insisting they
go on and leave him to die.But it’s
not human warriors who act so
selflessly.A study has shown that ants
do exactly the same in battle.Live
Science has this interesting article that a species of warmongering sub-Saharan
ant not only rescues its battle-wounded soldiers but also treats their
injuries.

This strikingly
unusual behavior raises the survival rate for injured ants from a mere 20
percent to 90 percent, according to new research published Feb. 13 in the
journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.These same ants, a species called Megaponera analis, were observed last
year bringing their injured back to the nest, but no one knew what happened to
the wounded ants after that, said study leader Erik Frank, a postdoctoral
researcher at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. Now, it's clear that the
ants get extra TLC after being saved from the battlefield.

M. analis is a
nondescript-looking species that lives in colonies of several hundred to over a
thousand ants. They're skilled raiders, sending out columns of several hundred
ants to attack termite nests and drag termite corpses back to their own nests
for a feast. These raids, however, often come with a cost: ants with lost or
crushed limbs, or even ants limping home with tenacious termites clinging to
their bodies.To find out the real
happening, the researchers staged raids between the ants and captive
termites, observing how the ants responded to heavily injured ants with five
limbs crushed or amputated versus lightly injured ants with only two lost or
damaged limbs.They found that in the
vast majority of cases, severely injured ants were left to die on the
battlefield. This version of ant triage wasn't at the behest of the rescuers,
Frank said; instead, ants with five missing limbs flailed, rotated and
generally refused to cooperate with their rescuers. Ants with two lost limbs,
on the other hand, curled up into easy-to-carry balls and let themselves be
taken home.

"If you're
able to stand up, you're very likely not too injured and you are still useful
to the colony, so you should be able to call for help and be rescued,"
Frank said. Once back at the nest, healthy ants would attend to the wounded,
licking their injuries for sometimes up to minutes at a time. Ants that were
prevented from getting this treatment had an 80-percent chance of dying within
24 hours, the researchers found, whereas ants that were cared for had only a
10-percent chance of death. To find out what was killing the injured, untreated
ants, the researchers relocated some to a sterile environment and found that
only 20 percent died, indicating that infections are probably the biggest risk
for injured ants.

Any uninjured ant
seems capable of providing the licking treatment — there's no indication of
dedicated ant "medics," Frank said — but it's not yet clear whether
the treatment prevents infections or actively treats them. Either way, the
behavior is exciting to see because it's extremely rare to observe any
individual animal treating another's wounds in any species, Frank said. It's
especially counterintuitive in ants, because the tendency is to think that ant
individuals are easily replaced cogs in the machinery of the colony, he said.
But in M. analis, colonies aren't that large, and only a dozen or so baby ants
are born each day, Frank said.

Photographer’s
enthusiasm knows no bounds when they are trying to take pictures – and I was
more than a bit worried in the two photos that I am posting here.

Risk is the
potential of gaining or losing something of value. Values (such as physical
health, social status, emotional well-being, or financial wealth) can be gained
or lost when taking risk resulting from a given action or inaction, foreseen or
unforeseen (planned or not planned). Risk can also be defined as the
intentional interaction with uncertainty.Every human endeavour carries some risk, but some
are much riskier than others.There are
many risk classifications such as :Pure, Speculative, Particular, Fundamental, Static, Dynamic, Financial
and more .. ‘not all risks are insurable’ – though the
fundamental of insurance is risk coverage !

The Winter Olympics
is on – and its concluding smoothly without a hitch will provide the Organisers
a toast of success and Insurers would be celebrating with profit.The
Games are being staged about two hours' drive from one of the world's most heavily
militarised borders, in a host country that is technically at war with its neighbor
(yet participating as one Unit !!) and
with teams that include two nations -- the United States and North Korea --
which have swapped nuclear threats. There are also concerns among Olympic
organisers and sponsors that the Games, at the ski resort of Pyeongchang, could
become a target of cyber hacking, a threat that could disrupt competition in
the event of a major cyber attack.

The International
Olympic Committee (IOC) has reportedly taken insurance protection for around $800 million at each
Games, which covers the vast majority of the roughly $1 billion investment it
makes in each of the host cities. The coverage
includes pay out for a range of mishaps,
ranging up to declarations of war, actual war, or acts of war. The
IOC declined to reveal the premium it has paid for the Pyeongchang, but
insurers said it was likely to be around 2-3 percent of the total cover. At the IOC's coverage of about $800 million,
this would represent a cost of around $16-24 million. One underwriter said this
would be relatively high and could reflect the greater security risks
surrounding the Pyeongchang event. At the summer Games at Rio de Janeiro in
2016, when worries were centred on an outbreak of Zika virus, and at London in
2012, the IOC paid premiums of about $13 million.

Getting back, there
are moments whence photographers break conventional methods, trying for great
angles and rare photos.First is to get
out of their comfortable zone ! trying out something new, warding off
stagnation.Though having a good mentor
helps in having your basics right, there is no stopping when it comes to
innovation

in the first friend Rajagopal Madhavan standing on a truck
covering purappadu at Thiruneermalai (Pic Keshav Rajagopalan)

~ the one above was taken from mid sea in a catamaran during
masimagam by Thirumalai Vinjamoor Venkatesh.

Elsewhere in UK,
MailOnline reports of the moment a driver
risked his life and stood in the middle of a busy motorway so he could take
some photos.It appears that the man had
just been involved in a collision and had decided to risk traffic for some
photographic evidence. The footage,
filmed on the A45 near Northampton, shows the brazen man standing in the middle
of three lanes of traffic and almost getting hit by two cars before having to
jog away. In what could be termed as negligence, the man in the video looks to
be in danger of being hit from two sides as he plants himself in the centre of
the road to snap the photo.Video of the
incident also shows that one of the motorists involved in the collision stopped
in the fast lane of the 70mph dual carriageway in Northampton without his
hazard lights on. It describes the scene as the shocking moment a man was almost hit by
two cars as he stood in the middle of a busy road in order to take a photo- the one who uploaded captioned the clip:
'It's not a good idea to stand in a live lane to take a photo.'

The footage begins
with Karl's vehicle in the middle lane as he approaches a busy roundabout. As
he gets closer to the roundabout, two black vehicles in front of him have
slowed down - and a man wearing a black jacket can be seen standing in the
middle of the road taking a picture.This
forces the first car to swerve to the right to avoid the man while the second
vehicle has to weave around him too.The
footage, captured on a dashcam, shows the man standing brazenly in the middle
of three lanes of traffic on a busy motorway.The man finally gets himself off the road realizing the danger , and
approaches another man wearing a white shirt and tie, who appears to be the
other motorist involved in the collision.

With regards – S.
Sampathkumar

14th Feb
2018.

Tailpiece
:Risk is a 2017 American documentary
film written and directed by Laura Poitras about the WikiLeaks founder Julian
Assange. The film's original premise was
to address the life of Julian Assange, documenting scenes showing "motives
and contradictions of Assange and his inner circle, focusing on the risks taken
by persons involved in the well-known Wikileaks website, the most notable risk
being taken by Assange himself. The film then presents documentation of
Assange's asylum claim, and the disguising of himself to sneak into the Embassy
of Ecuador in London for refuge.Originally
titled "Asylum", the film becomes a journey into the perception of
Poitras, who, in the re-cut of the film, altered the film's focus on the
experience of risk-taking left-leaning media work, towards a critique of
Assange as a flawed character under attack, including for his alleged mistreatment
of women.